Anjali Appadurai, a 21-year-old Canadian representing world youth at the UN climate summit in Durban, said, “You have been negotiating all my life. In that time you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed big targets, and you’ve broken promises... Where is the courage in these rooms? Now is not the time for incremental action ... these will be seen as the defining moments of an era in which narrow self-interest prevailed over science, reason and common compassion.”
Youth around the world are demanding action on climate change. I deeply hope our older generations will give them complete support. It is time that Colorado’s congressmen find the courage of which Appadurai speaks and support new green policy.
There’s no time left to play the fiddle while the world burns. Our planet is suffering unprecedented fires, record-breaking storms, rising seas, disappearing polar ice, the extinction of thousands of species in our bio-system – as well as immense human suffering that these events cause in millions of lives.
It is time to mitigate these devastating changes. And the time to act must be now. I urge you to work to create strong, transformative, bold initiatives – not the flaccid, weak, incremental pabulum that has been passed for the last 20 years.
We are watching. Will you step into this crucial moment in history and play a vital role? Or will you fiddle?
I will pray for your courage and commitment.
Constance Durand
Durango
